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Coronavirus: Rod Stewart sends Covid-19 NHS victim surprise gift

NAtasha Jenkins Rod Stewart and chequeNAtasha Jenkins
Covid-19 victim Natasha Jenkins received a photo and cheque for £5,000

A student nurse who spent weeks in a coma after contracting coronavirus has been given a surprise gift of £5,000 from pop singer Rod Stewart.

Natasha Jenkins, from Barry in south Wales, spent 22 days on a ventilator after falling sick just before Mother's Day.

Videos of her emotional reunion with her family in the Vale of Glamorgan were viewed worldwide.

It prompted the singing legend to get in touch with Natasha.

In a handwritten note on a photograph, Stewart wrote: "Hi Natasha, a small gift to help you through the rough times."

The second year trainee nurse was placed on a ventilator at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff after developing pneumonia and testing positive for coronavirus.

She now needs the support of a frame to walk, has crippling fatigue which she says makes her feel like "I've gone back to being a child again", and has been told she will need 12 months of rehabilitation.

Natasha Jenkins Natasha and her childrenNatasha Jenkins
Natasha said she would be forever grateful to the "amazing" NHS staff who saved her life

"I'm doing really good now. When I saw what Rod Stewart had sent me I was absolutely gob-smacked," said the 35-year-old.

"It was a really, really lovely kind thing for him to do."

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Natasha said she's thinking of what to do with the gift and is considering a treat for her three children - Codie, 16, Elise, 12, and Oakley, six - next year.

"They've been through so much, " she said.